Blogs!

Let's reflect on blogging, shall we?

  For me, blogging = journaling in public. I have always been a big journaler of my private thoughts and never shared those physical journals with anyone. Getting my thoughts on paper takes weight off my mind and can help me think through some of the tangle of emotions or ideas that get all stuck together if I don't say them out loud or write them down.

 Blogging is slightly different. I have started and deleted several blogs in my young adult life. Neither of which were meant in any way to be professional, I might add. My most recent attempt made me re-think what I wanted to do with blogs and what they meant to me. I wanted to use it as an outlet for my inner thoughts, but I am definitely aware that anyone can read these things if I have a public blog. And being public is an essential part of blogging, right? So then I should ease off the personal and talk more about school or food or Milwaukee restaurants or scholarly things...right? But then how personal does one get when talking about things like that? And how do you get "followers" for your blog if you're not really sure what you're writing about or, really, what you're doing at all?!

And now, this blog has been created.

In the spirit from which this was born (a class requirement) this blog's content will be more focused, if not scholarly. Digital history is an evolving area of study (or perhaps "method" or "tool set" would be more appropriate) that is extremely important for traditional historians and public historians alike. So let's dive in to some actual content!

Some thoughts on blogs:

1. They are a nice way to convey well-written ideas without having to publish them in a journal, newspaper, newsletter, etc. (online or paper)

2. Through this Blogger platform, customization is pretty simple (but sucks me in for at least 30 minutes....I have to get that font color just right!)

     -One of my classmates is giving a presentation about Word Press sometime soon, so it will be interesting       to learn about that platform.

3. They can be time consuming to maintain. This is especially true if you are a small historical organization who wants to have content in social media/blogs, but does not have a dedicated position for digital media.

4. For researchers or professors, a blog could be a journal about research processes or structuring a course. If it is a public blog, you could share it with colleagues anywhere you wish and get feedback about your problems or triumphs.

To conclude, here's and example of a Public History blog: National Council on Public History's blog called "History @ Work". A fairly simple set up, but with the abilities to tag subjects, add photos, post news, and leave comments.

-B-